Investors Discover That Terra Incognita Ukraina is a Can-be Eldorado

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During the Â?Viva La RevolucionÂ? conference, world investment leaders and Ukrainian politicians and entrepreneurs began a dialogue - revealing huge mutual expectations as well as prospects of fruitful cooperation.

Kiev, Ukraine (PRWEB)January 21, 2005

On Thursday Jan. 20, 2005 during the ÂViva La RevolucionÂ conference, world investment leaders and Ukrainian politicians and entrepreneurs began a dialogue - revealing huge mutual expectations as well as prospects of fruitful cooperation.

Ukrainian politicians, among which the top ranking National Bank, government and parliamentary committees' officials presented their views on the steps to be taken to improve country's investment climate. The discourse was rotating around the topics of government transparency, tax reform, and fund market activization; these were also at the core of investors' speeches.

Among the latter, such world's investment market leaders as ING Capital Markets, Credit Anstalt IB, East Capital Management, Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch, and Hansberger Group have participated in the conference. The presence of Ukrainian industrial heavyweights including ÂUkrNafta,Â NAK ÂNaftogaz,Â ÂZaporizhstal,Â ÂCenterenergo,Â ÂZakhidenergo,Â ÂAvtoKRAZ,Â ÂDniproazot,Â ÂSouth-East Industrial Investment Group,Â ÂStirol,Â ÂPrivatÂ indicated their eagerness to work with the world business community.

Speaking on event's necessity Michael Maltsoff of Energy Standard Group, a company working in Ukraine since 1995, admitted: ÂAbsolutely necessary. The timing is superb Â on the very day that Viktor Yushchenko has been confirmed as a President. Ukraine is an equity market and an investment destination which is not very well understood in the West. Only few funds have invested here any meaningful amounts of money. And that's, perhaps, is not surprising under the Kuchma regime. In my view there is a wall of money waiting to come into Ukraine. But it needs to be educated.Â

According to John Suggitt, the managing director of Kyiv-based investment company ÂConcorde-CapitalÂ who hosted the conference, ÂUkraine's investment possibilities were one of the conferenceÂs main goals. His company was a co-organizer of the conference along with Ukrainian Parliament Â a fact demonstrating willingness of country's political elite to work with world's business leaders.

Far from looking at Ukraine through rosy-colored glasses, and asking tough questions to Ukrainian officials, both Ukrainian and world business leaders were highly optimistic for Ukraine's future investment prospects.

The active discussion between the participants of the ÂViva La RevolucionÂ investment conference was becoming even more intense during the coffee-breaks. Informal communication between Ukrainian policymakers, business leaders and foreign investors proved to be an efficient means of finding a way to remove obstacles on country's way towards investment breakthrough.

"Such open communication between all parties involved in the investment process creates an atmosphere of confidence, that is essential for mutually beneficial cooperation," says John Suggit while noting that this was the event's principal target.